I'm down 10 kg (22 lbs) from my maximum pregnancy weight. What a lot of energy I have. Well, not right now since it's after 9pm and I'm falling asleep.
I still have another seven kg or so to lose. I suspect that these will be the hardest, but you never know. I guess I should lay off the deep fried eggplant for a while.
I feel so much stronger now than I did during pregnancy. I can't believe the difference. I took DS the pool the other day. I had taken him a bunch of times in late pregnancy. It was so hard to move around with him then and to get in and out of the water or in any position other than plain old sitting. Also, my swollen feet hurt when I walked through the water. Not sure why. But now I was able to really have fun with him. I was able to put him on top of me and swim with him, and I could run through the wading pool with him and play games. It's so much better-- it's astounding.
I've been really tired lately. It's not the baby keeping me up-- ironically, she's been sleeping through the night with just a little wake-up call here and there to eat. It's DS who's been calling us and crying. Well, last night he slept pretty well and didn't wake up until after 7am! The morning before, he woke up at 5:30 and was up and running. I was able to take a nap but DH had an exam that morning which he thinks he did poorly in. We started changing our reaction to his calls when my sister was over to help with the baby. She was sleeping in his room.
We're moving soon and the time has come to start packing up my stuff. Normally, this would be a great opportunity to clean out my closet and get rid of stuff I don't wear-- something I'm normally really really terrible at. I always think I'm going to end up using something again. And I almost always do. On top of all that, I am at this in-between stage where I have no idea what fits me and what doesn't and what will fit me in two or three months from now. I still managed to fill up about half a garbage bag with stuff to give away. And I can add a few pairs of well-used boots to that pile. But most of that stuff is stuff that was given to me over the last year or so that I've never really taken a shining to. So it's just skimming the fat off my wardrobe by a little. It doesn't constitute a major wardrobe turnover. AND I am itching to buy new clothes now to fit my current body.
I just wanted to add something or, rather, emphasize something with regards to my labor and delivery story from a few days ago. Laboring at home for as long as possible was the best thing I ever did.
Right up until the moment I got in the car to go to the hospital, I was folding laundry, packing a hospital bag for my DH, playing with my son, checking my e-mail, blogging, and watching videos online that my sister was trying to entertain me with. It was not a panicked, clinical experience with people standing over me and monitoring me. It was almost enjoyable-- except for the pain. I was able to get into whatever positions I wanted to get through contractions. I could move around at will from room to room. I could eat and drink, and I did, knowing that I wouldn't be able to until after I had the baby and then only at the next hospital mealtime.
Maybe I was only able to do this because my contractions did not get really bad until the very end, but I have no point of comparison since I didn't go into labor naturally last time so I don't know what it's like otherwise.
Maybe I said all this already. But it makes me so happy to think about it.
That great hair feeling I was enjoying throughout my pregnancy? No more. I've already begun finding long, wavy stray hairs on my clothes and on baby, and I don't think it's my new conditioner at fault here. It's those postpartum hormones making my nails crack and my hair fall out. Last time 'round, I had to cut my very very long hair after six months because it was taking me at least forty minutes to brush it every time I washed it and I just couldn't afford the time. The hair would fall out and get tangled in there. I would have to stop several times during the brushing and pull handfulls of hair out of my brush. My hair is very tangled on a regular basis and so I'm used to spending time getting knots out, but this was ridiculous. Cutting it helped because there was simply less to get tangled.
I got my hair styled about six months ago and haven't cut it since. I don't cut my hair very often. It's still in a stage where it's quite easy to get a brush through. Hopefully I won't have to do another drastic cut to get through this period.
Also, my beautiful nails from during pregnancy are starting to lose their strength. Sigh. There are some things about pregnancy that you can't wait to get rid of, and there are some things you wish you could keep.
Looking good at two and a half weeks postpartum. At least, that's what people are telling me. I went to drop off DS at nursery yesterday morning after going through my closet to figure out what I could now fit into. I think it's good to start phasing out my maternity clothes so that I have a real sense of where I am in terms of getting back to myself. Last time, I allowed myself six weeks to wear maternity clothes and then I put them all away and made myself face my closet.
Anyway, the skirt I wore yesterday was one I was able to wear through my pregnancy although it is just a regular stretchy denim skirt. The shirt is a very simple cotton t-shirt that I don't normally wear at all because it's so shapeless that I usually get lost in it. But now thanks to breastfeeding and my recent pregnancy, I'm a little more curvaceous and so I fit into it nicely.
The teachers and parents who haven't seen me since I gave birth were making all kinds of comments about how good I looked and how they look more pregnant than me.... I kept denying that I'd 'returned to my old body' because I know what lies beneath the facade of clothing.
The truth is, I'm fine with how I am right now. I'm not crazy: I just gave birth under three weeks ago. I don't expect to look like a runway model quite yet. I was somewhat surprised and pleased to find out how little I care about what others think about how I look. What really matters, as they say, is what's inside. In this case, I'll say what matters is what's inside my own head. You have to know in life to take things that other people say with a grain of salt. When it comes to the shape of my body, I guess the other opinion that matters besides my own is my husband's. So I'l keep it in the family.
I should have done a day-by-day photograph of my belly. I'll have to do it next pregnancy. I'm talking now about my post-pregnancy belly. On the day after birth, it sagged like an enormous misplaced boob over where my waistband would have been had I not been clad in a hospital robe. By day 2 it hadn't changed much. On day three, by the time I came home from the hospital, it had regressed significantly. I still had a soft mushy belly, but it looked like the soft mushy belly of a soft mushy person.
Looking at pictures of myself from a day or two after that, I can see that I still looked a bit pregnant. However, within the fist week, I was already able to feel that I had a waist again. It was a very good feeling. I keep putting my hands there because I can't believe it. What a feeling! A waist.
Now, about two and a half weeks after delivery, my stomach is soft and mushy still but it's not so protruding anymore. I probably look like I could stand to lose a few pounds-- and I probably can. I only weighed myself once, and that was within a week of delivery. My stomach was down but my weight was still about twenty pounds more than my pre-pregnancy starting point.
Another thing is that I normally have very prominent hipbones. I wouldn't say that they are prominent now but I can feel them again. I also feel like my thighs and legs are on their way back to being what they were before I gave birth. I still think my butt looks big, but I've learned that a big butt is not necessarily a bad thing. Fashion models may have nearly nonexistent bottoms, but I think a little bit of roundness on a girl is a nice feature. I am normally quite angular.
My face has thinned out. DH observed that women who are about to give birth tend to bulk up around the face. I noticed this in a friend of mine as well who's about 37 weeks right now. She's a thin girl with a tiny bloop of a belly but her face looks swollen. Mine was like that towards the end, but it's thinned out now.
All this is without exercise or any special dieting. In fact, I just finished consuming an ice cream pop. I was all ready to start going shopping and wandering about town after the baby was born but then she got sick with fever at one week and landed in the hospital for three days. Of course, I went with her. We were all but quarrantined in our room. You don't want to wander around a germy children's ward with a newborn. I was totally paranoid about germs that whole time and also totally sedintery. I had DH bring me my yarn and I sat and crocheted the whole time. Ever since then, DH doesn't want me to take her out until she's at least a month and even when he's home, which isn't so often lately, it's hard for me to leave her b/c I'm breastfeeding. Pumping is an option but it's hard to find the opportunity.
Anyway, the point is that my body does seem to want to get back to its normal self. Now if only I could help out by getting some exercise.
I keep looking at my feet. They are so... gorgeous and shapely. Not at all like hot water bottles. I can't believe they're mine. And just think-- they were hidden under all that swelling all this time.
They didn't shrink back to size straightaway. They went down significantly immediately but they felt bruised and sore, which I guess they were. It didn't help that DS liked to step on them while they were huge.
It's only in the last couple of days that I've noticed the sinews showing through the skin again. I have very long, thin feet normally, so seeing sinew is normal for me.
Well, I'm glad to have them back. Now I can wear my crocs again! Can you believe I grew out of those too?
I've spent the last nine months blogging about my pregnancy expeirences. And while pregnancy technically ends with birth, the effects of it go on. So going forwared, this blog is going to address what it's like to be post-partum. Physically, emotionally, and any other way.
For my breastfeeding blog, please see http://breastfeedingchronicles.blogspot.com
Soon to be updated.
Enjoy!
